The Solstice Discussion and Author Notes
by Corration
Summary: Title says it all. There is a couple of cuss words that should be M, but it serves for the explanation in a serious, not angry, tone. Probably in the near future, I'll change the rating.
1. Intro

So, this discussion marks the end of the Solstice Trilogy ("Is It the End?", "The New Kid", and "Come Back"). All I can say is _finally_. Don't get me wrong, it was fun to write this. It's just that it's hard when after the fourth story of the timeline, you find it difficult to think of new ideas pertaining to the timeline. I kept it as a timeline to prove what we all learned in "The Lion King": the circle of life.

So for this discussion, the first three sections are devoted to the Solstice Trilogy, starting with the first story to the last story, then a section will be devoted going back to the Jungle Trilogy, then author's favorites (I have favorites too, you know. That's not selfish, I think.), and it finishes off with future developments. I am not including character descriptions because there're about 12-15 major characters and about twenty minor characters who impacted the story in some form.

So with that in mind, let's dig in.


	2. Is It the End?

The first of the trilogy starts off with "Is It the End?" After writing "Jungle Faith", I decided if I could make fun of something. In "Jungle Faith", I poke fun at different things, but it pertained to the storyline. I decided to somewhat do the same with "Is It the End?".

"Is It the End?" touches the topics of cussing, sex, intermarriages, conscious thoughts, drinking, views of different things, and holds references from "American Pie", The Mayan Calendar, Norstradamus, the first apocalypse, Facebook, Wikipedia, Youtube, 'imaginary' friends, and the American government's EPA. Of course, discussing all these topics would change the rating to M.

The cussing wasn't overkill. It mostly appeared in comedy or getting screwed over. The first word that comes into my mind when I forgot to do something important or late for something is either one of these words: damn, shit, or fuck, depending on the seriousness of the matter. I felt it appropriate to have it ironic that supposed "G"-rated movie characters cuss. If you read Rio movie reviews, there're actually some mothers who say that should have been a "PG"-rated movie. (Maybe "R" if Luiz said "This is the shit" instead of "This is the spit.") Also, with all the butt jokes and forcing Blu and Jewel to have sex, this just drove me to imagine Rio as an M-rated story.

Since we are on the topic of sex, might as well talk about it. So the kids are exposed to it when Blu is searching around Youtube after seeing "2012 End of the World", which is a real Youtube video. Of course, Youtube doesn't block animals having sex. You can type in 'birds mating' and you can watch videos of birds having sex. Towards the end, Blu and Jewel have sex, which was ironic to me after I wrote it. (Just pertaining to my stories.) The first M story of the trilogy to have a sex scene? It reminded me of Jungle Instincts. The only difference was that "Jungle Instincts" was making babies and "Is It the End?" was having fun. There was one comment from Lover of a Good Story to have all the birds have a sex scene, but I didn't want to get too carried away. It is implied, which has a joke at the end, but I felt that writing several would lose the interest. I can't really remember the name of the Rio story where it was all about sex. After a while, repeated sex scenes lose interest. That's why a sex scene is so juicy. There's always one per good movie, unless you're watching a porno.

To press onward, the concept of "Is It the End?" is mocking the 2012 theory. All the information about 2012 in the story is valid data. It didn't come out of the top of my head. It was reliable information that one could look up. I figured since 2012 is coming up, it would be fun to touch on it.

My opinion on 2012 is reflected off of the comments Blu and Abe make, trying to prove that it is a theory, not a reality. Even when Blu is caught up in the moment, it is still my opinion. At the end, Abe gives a speech to Dianna, claiming that the chances of dying on December 21, 2012 are the same as dying any other day, which is true.

So, Dianna, a new major background character is introduced to the series. The only reason why Dianna was included was more for Abe's development. He got a girlfriend at the end. Though the introduction of the character was a drag to read (Chapter 8), the later chapters showed Abe getting out of sex with this attractive girl. Dianna also describes those people who do believe 2012.

Nico and Pedro also believed this myth when they first heard it and convinced mostly everyone else. This is the only story in the series that Nico and Pedro are fully involved in the plot. In fact, all of the bird friendly characters introduced in the last trilogy are all incorporated in this story, with the introduction of Fides's husband and daughter. When Nico and Pedro tell the birds and they believe them (excluding Blu), it points at gossip. Gossip is at most of times not true, but most people will still believe it.

This story also makes points. At the end of Rio, you see three chicks, two boys and one girl. In Chapter 9, Pepito brings up who would marry Elena? This promotes incest, which is okay in the animal kingdom. Blu talks about the extinction of the dinosaurs in Chapter 9, which he states that the dinosaurs were on their way to extinction before the asteroid hit. In Chapter 5, Blu talks about Yellowstone National Park, which is a reference to a British movie documentary titled "Super Volcano". Even Luis sings about the end of the world, singing it would be the government's fault. In chapter 9, there was a MILF joke. The term MILF came from "American Pie". I studied the word and noticed you could rotate the "M" to make it into a "W" and provided my own acronym which Blu used to crack a seductive joke with Jewel. The whole panic thing, in the end of Chapter 9 and all of Chapter 10, points out that this society makes the most simplest of things into things of such magnitudes of complexity. Overthinking something and not coming up with a logic solution is common, even if it shows little significance.

Some facts of the Mayans and 2012 are scattered across the story. It's interesting to read that kind of stuff. Instead of the seriousness of 2012 and what could happening, mocking it was way better than having an actual plot, compared to "The New Kid" and "Come Back". Along the way, mocking things flowed with the story. They didn't get to out of text, like when Blu was looking at his Facebook account. The only reason why he was there is explained in Chapter 4 before he accessed it. Abe's letter to EPA was just to express how people hate to work during the holidays but are forced to. Leoncio's imaginary friend was really a friend he claimed he saw. It shows that kids see different things than parents do.

Unlike in the Jungle trilogy, the theme is hidden, for the entire trilogy. In the Jungle trilogy, the theme was in the title and there was only one. For "Is It the End", there are a couple of themes and guidelines:

1) Ideas and theories can be misleading (The 2012 theory)

2) Stand firm for what you believe in (Blu vs. his wife and friends and Abe vs. Dianna and other people in the 2012 theory)

3) Relax when the situation gets tense (The panic at the club after the tugboat crashed)

4) Don't be stupid and be safe (Blu forgets his protection while everyone else had one)

5) Always follow the orders of your employer, even if you don't want to work (Abe vs. EPA)

6) Never tell your date or spouse you regret something (Blu regretting sex with Jewel)

"Is It the End?" shows some promises for the future, hopefully. I think I covered it for the most part. If there is any part about this story you are unsure of, pm me.


	3. The New Kid

"The New Kid" takes place after "Is It the End?" Due to Blu's forgetfulness, Jewel lays an egg. This is the first of the series that focuses on the chicks other than just Blu and Jewel. It is also the prologue to the story "Come Back". I thought of "Come Back", which I called "The Return" before this story. This story served as some more character development for the chicks and directs to family.

So the story opens up with Jalin, Elena, and Leoncio getting in trouble. This describes how life in the days after "Is It the End?" is going. Jalin is a bit more mature, Leoncio is trying to cause misfortune without getting in trouble, and Elena is considered the quiet princess. After the egg hatches, Aurora is introduced. Time has passed between Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. During the time, Jalin, Elena, and Leoncio feel that they are being replaced and plan to get rid of her at any given opportunity.

The story is dedicated to brothers and sisters that are close to age. It makes sense. Toddlers feel out of place when a new baby is introduced, and they try to gain attention from their parents. Throughout the story, Aurora gets praise and gets the excuse 'she is just a chick', which makes the three other chicks mad. Probably what they did to her was a tad bit extreme, but it serves a purpose to arguing siblings. When they argue, sometimes they 'wish' the other sibling was gone out of the family. Jalin, Elena, and Leoncio made it into a reality.

Like the previous story, it pokes fun at things, though it is very limited. Immature children in trouble will try to weasel out, and grandmas or aunts will spoil the kids. It also pokes fun at soccer, stories, perfection, the innocence of a child, Chuck Norris, and the awkwardness of sex. It gets back to the serious tone after Chapter 7, talking about drugging and getting rid of someone in a 'PG'-rated mafia thing.

This story centers on perfection, which is tabooed. I find it very ironic. I mean, perfection can be never achieved, but we always try to one-up everyone so you can be the best. If you're better than everyone else, isn't that similar to perfection? We think of perfection as in every way, but my idea of perfection is being the best in society. In that sense, you are perfect, according to the society. In society, we label people as geniuses, but if they were, wouldn't we be a few decades more advanced? Geniuses are perfect people in that area. Albert Einstein, a well-known physicist, was credited for making the atomic bomb to work. The way he executed it was probably perfect in that sense. I mean, how could you get unstable atoms in a metal bomb without them causing an explosion? To me, geniuses are just a polite way of saying perfection in that area.

Not much else to say, except for the themes and guidelines.

1) A person who thinks he/she is perfect is really snobbish (Character development of Aurora)

2) Family can drive you crazy, but you still love them (Jalin's guilt trip)

3) Spend time with your family (Blu and Jewel taking the kids around Rio)

4) Treat your kids equally (Blu's mistake of taking Aurora out with him to get food)

5) Kids can weasel their way out of trouble; don't be fooled (Aurora getting out of trouble for talking with Elena in a mean way)

6) Kids are smarter than what you think (Jalin getting a chemistry book for purposes other than just to be careful around certain chemicals)

7) Control your anger and jealousy (Jalin and Elena second thinks the plan)

So, at the end, there is still confusion as to why Aurora's name was changed into a name like Salvia. Salvia is a type of medication, but in the Latin culture, it means healthy. When Salvia arrived at the vet, Angelica noticed how healthy she was. Healthy does not only mean just in the condition of the person, but also describe personality. Unlike the other birds, Aurora had a happy atmosphere around her. She was healthy in spirit. That's why Angelica called her Salvia.

So, "The New Kid" was just a long prologue that turned out to be a story. The weakest out of the series, but it displays powerful messages. There's really not much to cover about this story. I have no way of making better. The ending to this story is the prologue to "Come Back". So, with that in mind, "Come Back" will be discussed.


	4. Back to the Jungle

Yesterday marked the 150-day of Jungle Instincts, hence the start of the Jungle Trilogy. Really, it's been that long. Six stories in about 5 months? That is what can be called time management. I am studying to become a materials science engineer, which is awesome. The diffusion of metals within the structure, how structures are formed, the phase diagrams dependent on temperature, and so on. It's a lot, and that's one class. However, the other class intersects with that one, so I get a double review. It's awesome, and thank you I know the math behind it. I've been tutoring in math for three years and have an Associate's degree in math, a two-year degree that landed me the tutoring job I have. So being a writer is far screwed from what I really am. Calculus and logic and differentials of equations and writing lab reports are what I really am about. However, I'm a 'what-if' guy, so the ideas are there, even if the words are not.

So, how does this rant have to do with me being an associate mathematician? I can visual things in 3-D. I know it might seem easy, but let's say I have an electron circling around an atom. It rotates around the cloud of electrons in a spherical path, forming a circular. Now, if I hit it with ultraviolet rays, I give that electron enough energy to jump from one energy level to the next for a brief time before it comes back down to its original level. Try to visual this in 3-D compared to 2-D. 3-D is sometimes found to be harder than 3-D. The Jungle Trilogy and, especially, the Solstice Trilogy use the idea of 3-D imagining. It is easier to visual the Jungle Trilogy because it focuses on Blu and Jewel, two characters you already know what they look like. The new characters introduced look normal either seen by you or seen through the internet. Pepito and Fides are Lear's Macaws, so find a picture, and Abe is a young college-looking boy with brown hair, brown eyes, and tanned white skin. Well, Abe's skin is close to being brown for clarification.

There have been no complaints about Jungle Instincts, other than early on when the story was developed. The same goes for Jungle Confidence. The only complaint about it was the implication of the sex scene when Pepito heard those sound effects. Other than that, I can think of any other major complaint. However, some people still have complaints about Jungle Faith, mostly due because of robots. Robots have been a topic ever since 2000. To me, it's just a culture shock. If you take someone from the 1960s and introduce him or her to the iPad, they'll find it to be impossible. When debit and credit cards were first out, the older generation tabooed them, because it was all electronics. Some old people still taboo computers because they would rather do everything on paper and through mail because they don't know how to use a computer. You may think that is silly, but it's true, and it's the same deal with robots. The Japanese are intuitive (The Virtual Boy and the Wii), along with Steve Jobs (The creator of the touch-screen tablet and Apple gadgets). The Japanese have this robotic show every year. It's pretty amazing to see technology grow, even though it can be scary at times. The Japanese's design of the robot was more preloaded. Google this: Unveiled Life-like Female Robot that can Feel! and Dancing Japanese Robots. For Abe's design, google Lucky the Dinosaur or just think of those robots you see at toy stores you can control with a remote (Mechagodzilla, a 1974 robotic toy). Hopefully, that clears up some gap between either if the robot was out there or not. Believe what you want. They said it was impossible to fly to the moon, but in 1969. They said the world was flat, but it was round. They said that graphics couldn't get realistic in games, but look at it now. Jungle Faith is just a big move that we have the technology out there, but should we let it control our lives?

The Jungle Trilogy looks at the lives of Blu and Jewel mostly and is the easier out of the two trilogies to visualize. But to me, I use the phrase trilogy to separate the lives Blu and Jewel had compared to the prologue story of Aurora's birth all the way to Jalin's adulthood. Just to stop and not get ahead of myself, my favorites from these two trilogies and my future plans will be discussed in the next section.


	5. Future Concepts

So that wraps up another discussion. I appreciate those readers who take time to read this. Hopefully, you get an understanding on why I do certain things. I don't really like inserting comments prior or after to the story because I think it takes your mind out of the story. I either leave them in the review section or in a discussion. I know this trilogy has been a long ride, but it has stopped. If the ending ended up with Blu and Jewel dying, as presumed in the beginning, or Salvia returning to Rio before Jalin got there, also presumed, or the ending didn't turned out joyful for Jalin and become one of those wtf moments because it ended in depression, I would probably never heard the end of it. However, everything turned out okay for our characters of Rio.

Anyways, in the intro of this, I will list down my favorites. Even I critic my own work. After a while, I will revisit some of my old stories and and still find myself chuckling at the parts I wrote. I will go from least to favorite.

6) The New Kid

"The New Kid" is the backbone of "Come Back', but that's it. I think of the humor to be funny but not that funny. I like the message incorporated and it does portray keeping sibling relationship stronger, but that's it. It is one of the shortest stories for a reason. However, it serves a purpose and sets the plot up for "Come Back". There's only three chapters I like from this story: Story Time, No More, and Perfection?. From those, only sections of passageways I enjoyed typing.

5) Jungle Instincts

"Wait, what?" is probably what you're thinking. "Jungle Instincts" was my introduction to the Rio community and started the whole Jungle Trilogy. Why is it my bottom 3 favorites? I like the story and everything, but it just doesn't have that filling. The story is very dry at some parts, and strong in only a couple of others. I still enjoy reading it, but not as much as my other stories. It still have over 16,000 hits up to date. It is a story worth reading. I just can't picture myself reading it more than twice. I do like the message, but it is the same message throughout the whole trilogy: 'Don't let fear control you'. The first few chapters are slow compare to the last couple of chapters, but I do like some themes. It would be easier in a line graph to show where it is exactly between #4 and #6. To give you an picture, it is closer to #4.

4) Jungle Confidence

"Jungle Confidence" is a true introduction to my comic writings of Rio. In the beginning, it is dry. It is not until Pepito is introduced that I had fun writing it. However, there are some dry spots with Pepito towards the end. My two most favorite scenes that were written were when Pepito wanted to play the "Horsey" game Jewel and Blu were playing and when Blu sacrificed his life. It also introduces how kids say the darnest things, but not so much as to "Jungle Faith".

3) Come Back

To be honest, I like "Come Back" more than "Jungle Instincts". It takes the edge because of the message and ingenuity. A story whose main characters are original characters that you know of is still hard to imagine. It has more comedy than the other two, but it also focuses on the kind of romance of "Forgive or not". It also displays the most powerful messages out of the six stories: How far will you fight for your happiness? Though Jalin's quest fills like a drag, it is all due to determination. Being told all your life by others you will never become something to where you become a most respected tutor at college and high school level is something. Besides, there's more drama to it than Jungle Instincts and more of a story line to it, though the ending's epilogue was summarized. Probably I'll fill that void...

2) Jungle Faith

Now its "wtf. I like "Jungle Instincts" way more than this one. #2 is very close to #3, but it beats "Jungle Confidence" by the edge as my second favorite. Whenever I find myself reading this story, I always remember the comments. Most of them were all iffy. The introduction of a human character and the idea of robots is not so common, but it works. "Jungle Faith" was bold move. Not only does it affect the story, but the readers as well. In the discussion for the Jungle Trilogy, I mention that the readers just needed to have faith in this story. I think some of the story was on the battle of losing in the scenes of Abe building the bird animatron, but it turns out to be a great run to end the trilogy. This story does make sense and everything in it is possible and most likely can be made today using today's technology. Also, the dialogue and scenes between the chicks and Blu and Jewel was funny compared to Pepito's comments. The only drags to me were the business talk between Tulio and Abe. My favorite chapters are 'Blu's Check-Up', 'The Experiment', 'Frozen Peas', 'Bath Time', 'To Ramos','Rescue','Caged', and 'Short Speech'. The main reason why I believe it to be my second favorite is because it tackles something that is considered taboo and executes it very well.

1) Is It the End?

"Is It the End?" is always one I enjoy reading. It has no distinct plot and a joke or two in every chapter. It is also tackles maturity where the birds do cuss at times that were appropriate and brings all the main characters from the Jungle Trilogy and the movie back to one story. The story does not only mock the 2012 theory, but it also makes other things, like YouTube, the internet, physical check-ups, imaginary friends, one-night stands, the whole 'stays in Vegas' things, protection, and so on. It does have a time flow to it, but there is not really much of a plot. The only criticism I receive about it was the cussing, but it's not overkill and it serves for the comedy, like when Blu gets screwed over for not wearing protection. I like it and want to make future writings similar to it if I have the chance.

So, I decided not to do another trilogy. My trilogies have a timeline. If you continue, eventually, Blu and Jewel would die and you're stuck with original characters. Some people like it, and some people don't. That's fine. Besides, when I imagine the plot, the beginning and the end are in my mind. Never the middle, so I roll the dice when I reach the middle of the story. It's still fast. I mean, six stories in five months? Either I have free time, which now I won't find, or ideas come quickly, because these stories strengthen my imagination for the concepts of things I'm working on. Take your pick.

Future works? At first, I was going to call it quits, but then something came to me. It does not follow a define plot, nor would I worry on how to expand the plot. Also, it would give me free time. Throughout my experience at this website, I only deleted two stories. I will complete the story I have at hand. I feel like a jerk if I don't finish the story. Like if I left off Come Back after Abe said Salvia was related and called it quits, it would be a disappoint, not considering the chapters after that. It will still revolve around the two trilogies and maybe around the movie. It's just a bunch of one-shots together into a series. I will specify the where it takes place for that one-shot, and it will revolve around a story or have a small episode plot after a specific story. This way, I don't feel rushed or wanting to finish and have more free time and flexibility among plots. I don't know when I'll start it up, so keep your eyes out. Once again, thank you Rio readers and happy imagining.


End file.
